Over the years, I never wanted cancer to be my 'thing'- you know, my soap-box, my drama. After all, I'd not only survived cancer, but I've been hit by a drunk driver, become 'bionic' over the years as they have 'rebuilt' me as a result of the accident, had a brain bleed and learned to walk/talk all over again, plus was exposed to the drug DES when my mother was pregnant with me. You might say I've more than one loose screw and skinned more than a few knees. But haven't we all?

One day, a dear friend of mine, also a cancer survivor (many times over) were talking. She said: “You know, Care, we who have survived cancer have an obligation. It is our honor and an amazing opportunity as survivors to help raise awareness, to talk about prevention, to honor those who have gone before us, and to encourage those who survive to walk beside us as we keep fighting back.”

Talk about a whap upside the head! She was right. It IS an honor. It IS an opportunity. And it IS an adventure! Marilyn got me to walk in my first American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life Survivor’s Lap, some 20 years after my first of 11 separate diagnoses with cancer, in Enumclaw, WA where I received my first diagnosis at age 19. I honored my comrades during the emotional Luminaria Lap. My life has never been the same since.

Ironically, I had worked with Dr. Gordy Klatt during my occupational therapy internship rotations. For those who don't know, Dr. Gordy started Relay For Life in 1985, in Tacoma, WA, to raise money for cancer research and treatment interventions.

I watched the news coverage of the very first Relay For Life from a hospital bed some 60 miles away, recovering from my second breast cancer surgery. With tears streaming down my face I thought, “Wow. Dr. Gordy is Relaying for me, and he doesn’t even know it.”

Since walking in my first Survivor’s Lap, I’ve been involved with the American Cancer Society on many levels - now, from the "Upper One" aka Alaska (vs. "Lower 48"!) from local committees to working with our state legislators on insurance coverage. I had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC to speak with House and Senate members relating to cancer. I said to them as I say to you right now:

“Stop what you are doing. Look at the end of your hand. Now, look to your left. Now...look to your right. Realize that one of you will be affected by cancer in your lifetime, and we CAN change that.”
It’s all at the end of OUR hands.
So Let's CELEBRATE! REMEMBER! and most of all: FIGHT BACK!